Archmage: Volume 1 Chapter 9

Archmage: Volume 1 Chapter 9

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all of your support so far. I had a lot of fun translating this teaser, but as expected, I’ve become far too busy to continue. It’s truly regretful, but there’s no helping it.

I hope you enjoyed the first volume! If anyone picks it up, please support the continuation. Though, if no one picks it up by the time summertime rolls around again, I might return to translating it. Haha. Shout-out to Masadeer for proofreading!

-Lei

Translated by Lei
Proofread by Masadeer

My Name is Kyre!

“Phew!’

“You’re truly impressive!”

“Ohhh! We finished the work easily thanks to you, Kyre.”

‘Pant pant! The side effects of mana are… arggh!’

Greatly uplifted by the everyone’s surprised faces, I had upturned the field like a crazy filly. And thus came the state of mana exhaustion. Characteristic of spells like Lighten, mana was constantly drained while the spell was being maintained. The result was that I exhausted my mana within one hour and only had enough strength to pick up chopsticks.

‘I don’t have enough mana. I have to expand my circle to the utmost and increase the mana.’

According to the Law of Mana Drainage, differences in the amount of mana in the circle were very subtle at first, but as soon as you became an upper circle Mage, the differences were like heaven and hell. I was able to fill my circle with mana far more easily than others thanks to the remarkable channeling method Master had taught me, but I couldn’t fill the 4th Circle all the way yet.

“But Hans, why don’t you cultivate the land over there? It’s a pretty large area.”

About a kilometer away from the village, fairly expansive plains stretched out unused. The slope was decent, and from the looks of the thickly growing grass, the plains definitely had good soil as well.

“Our harvest last year was small, so we can’t cultivate it.”

“Huh? What does the harvest have to do with cultivation?”

‘What in the world is he saying?’

“Where are you from, lad? Are you not a person of this continent? Or did you come from an island where there aren’t any monsters?”

“Ha, haha! I don’t remember, so I don’t know where I lived.”

When something was hard to say, the best excuse was amnesia.

“I see. So that’s why you say such things.” Even as he spoke, Hans gazed at the expansive land with eyes of regret.

‘I’m not some kind of fortune teller, so I’ll only know if you say it.”

Having upturned the field with the plow, the women carefully stored the potatoes. Hans and I were able to rest a bit on the grass.

“There was a drought last year, so the crop harvest, including the potatoes, weren’t good. We couldn’t catch fish, so we were depending on the field crops…”

“But usually, a potion only remains effective for a year. So every year, after paying our taxes, we acquire potions with the remaining money. For independent villages like us that don’t receive the lord’s protection, potions are even more necessary. If we don’t put a potion on the land we’re cultivating or on the boat we use to catch fish, there’s no knowing when a demon will appear and slaughter us.”

‘That’s ridiculous!’

Hans was saying that farming and catching fish were only possible if potions were acquired with the money left after paying taxes. If the harvest wasn’t good, like it had been last year, then there was less money for buying potions, and that could result in not being able to cultivate the land right in front of you.

“But aren’t there the villagers standing guard over there? Can’t they win against a demon?”

“Lad… so you’ve really lost your memory. How could you think that farmers like us can take on Demons, which can face knights using Aura Blade? The people over there are just for blocking monsters like Orcs.”

‘Aura Blade!’

No exact knowledge of demons came to my mind.

“Hans, but this is the Kallian Continent, right?’

“… Have you forgotten even that?”

Past being dumbfounded, the hairy Hans looked at me with an expression of pity.

‘Argh. I’ve become a birdbrain.’

The one and only Kang Hyuk, the reckless kid who lived with pride, had been reduced to an ignorant amnesiac who only knew his own name.

“Then the potion I drank was…”

“Th-that was a potion we bought the year before last. The chief was holding onto it because it was a waste to throw it away…”

“Geh!”

‘W-what the hell! Doesn’t that mean I drank a potion that was past the expiration date! Uwaahh!’

“Thanks to you, a potion past its prime didn’t go to waste. Thanks.”

Hans, who had briefly turned me into a guinea pig for drug experiments, bowed his head.

‘If… it hadn’t been effective…’

It was a gruesome thought.

“Dad! Come eat lunch~!”

“Let’s go. Our work this morning was quickly finished thanks to you, lad.”

I had consumed a potion past its expiration date, but I had to be thankful that I lived after drinking it. It couldn’t be helped that I had consumed it, after all.

* * *

‘I can’t live like this! I want to eat meat!’

Completely labeled as the village livestock, I’d been forced to due plowing work for the past three days. Even so, it was fine. After all, I was using magic and repaying my life debt to the people.

But the problem was food. I didn’t know how much the territory tax was, but I caught a glimpse of fear from the people– fear that they might not even be able to subsist with grain for meals, much less potatoes.

And so, I decided on an ambitious plan.

It was the grand ‘I’ve gotta eat meat’ plan. If things went wrong, I could die of malnutrition before I left this world.

‘So the thing is, in the past, before there was the big threat of monsters, they hunted and harvested greens in the forest and caught fish in the sea all year round.’

Since I’d worked hard to upturn the field for three days, the villagers were friendly to me, and I was able to hear a lot from them. In the past, this Luna Village was quite a well-off in the territory. At one point, it was a village that had a population of over a thousand people. But ten years ago, on Luena’s Moon, a day when monsters became more ferocious, monsters like Orcs and Ogres appeared and attacked the village.

Because they had always been prepared, the village watch was able to drive away the monsters, but they suffered a massacre from the demons that cunningly appeared like wolves after that. The demons had invaded because the ignorant Orcs had laid waste to the bottle holding the potion. Thus the village was brought to near destruction, and the survivors were now working hard to cling to life.

‘So they can’t hunt if they can’t buy potions, yeah? Huhuhu.’

They didn’t know, but I was a kind Mage who had come from another world. How could a Mage like me ignore the village’s crisis?

Flop flop!

‘Ah! Th-that is!’

I was on a seaside cliff, where I could see the village in one glance. I had discovered it today, and it was quite a nice place. I could see the blue horizon extending endlessly, and upon seeing a huge object suddenly jump up above the horizon, my jaw dropped.

“TU-TUNA! Oh my god! It’s tuna!”

Very rarely, when my mother was in a good mood, I was able to taste tuna sashimi. Even then, it was a frozen tuna caught in the Pacific Ocean, but I still remembered the taste.

That incredible, unforgettable taste of the meat slowly melting in your mouth.

The huge fish that was jumping up from afar by the horizon was definitely called a tuna. Somehow I’d unknowingly activated Magic Eye, allowing me to confirm it with my own eyes.

“One! Two! Ohhh! This is a sea of tuna!”

Tuna, the luxury fish whose more expensive individuals could reach prices of over 1 million in the neighbouring island nation known as Japan!

Starved for meat, the sight of the tuna drove me crazy.

“With one… all the villagers could throw a party.”

The feelings of the villagers, who couldn’t go catch the tuna despite seeing them right before their eyes. Now I thought I could understand why the vitality in their eyes had disappeared. Not only did land monsters exist, but there were underwater monsters in the water, too. Because they were a number of fairly big ones, you could only catch fish if you had a few potions.

“GRAAAAAAAHH! You’re all dead!”

I had never craved for meat this much in my life. No matter how cold-hearted my parents were in disciplining their offspring, they gave me meat at least once every three days.

“This is no time to be sitting around!”

The tuna, appearing like a mirage– I couldn’t miss them!

“The freedom of mana shall soon be the freedom of the wind! Fly!”

Today, after finishing the potato harvest, the villagers had all gone out to the field to sow wheat. Atop the cliff, away from their eyes, I cast Flight magic.

Swoosh! My body floated into the air.

Flap flap!

Having become a bird, I flew towards the sea. In my hands was the small spear Hans had given me for ‘self-protection.’

* * *

“Have you found him?”

“No! He’s nowhere to be found in the village…”

“Hrgh, this lad, where did he go? Tomorrow, Luena’s Moon will rise.”

Thanks to the black-haired young man who had suddenly appeared in the village, Kyre, the villagers had been able to finish the potato harvest early and even sow the wheat. Though they had planned on returning home with their tired bodies and resting, when Hans cried out that Kyre had disappeared, everyone set about to comb the village. But the young man named Kyre was nowhere to be found.

“S-surely he didn’t go into the forest, right?”

“Surely not. We seriously warned him that it was dangerous.”

“He didn’t run away, did he?”

“Whaddya mean, run away… it’s not like he racked up a debt with us or anything…”

The two hundred or so villagers were gathered and whispering amongst themselves in the village square, where the chief’s house was. The sun had dropped at some point and night was about to fall. It was too much for the village watch to go outside and look for him now.

“Kyre….”

When the villagers were talking amongst themselves, Cecile had her hands together and was praying to the Goddess of Mercy while thinking of Kyre. Kyre, a boy with uncommon black hair. It had been just a few days, but she had grown fond of Kyre– he made a smile that refreshed her heart whenever she looked at him. Especially because he had dripped sweat while dragging the plow in the place of her father, Kyre was a man to whom Cecile was grateful. She was so grateful to Kyre, who did the hard work instead of her father, whose strength had waned because there was little to eat these days.

‘Dear God… please let nothing bad happen.’

Closing her eyes, Cecile prayed to Neran.

“H-he’s here! Kyre has appeared!”

“He’s walking from the beach!”

Just then, the name of Kyre came bursting out of the mouths of the several guards standing on the village palisade.

“The beach? Why from such a dangerous place!”

All the villagers swarmed towards the part of the palisade where the door to the beach was. Since the people of Luna Village thought of other people’s problems as their own, everyone was sincerely worried about Kyre.

Tmp tmp tmp!

Cecile’s eyes flashed open from praying ardently to god. And then, grabbing Deron’s hand (he’d been standing at her side) she ran towards the door facing the beach as the villagers swarmed to it.

* * *

“Hng, hng…!”

‘Argghh! So hard, tch.’

My hunger had driven me to fly recklessly above the ocean. Then, like the grandpa main character in ‘The Old Man and the Sea,’ I underwent a desperate struggle to catch tuna. So many tuna were swimming about that the ocean one kilometer away from the village was half water, half tuna.

But the problem was that the only weapon in my hands was a feeble spearhead lodged into a sturdy wooden shaft. Moreover, I wasn’t securely in a boat, but maintaining Flight magic to catch the leaping tuna– it was as hard as a blind man catching a pheasant with a stone.

I looked for chances and stabbed in vain hundreds of times, all while in midair. Whenever my mana fell, I retreated to the beach to catch my breath, then went flying off again to catch a tuna. I absolutely wanted to avoid eating a few potatoes floating about in a clear soup and the teeth-shattering barley bread. And then, I was finally able to stick my spear into the head of a blind tuna.

‘Why’d it have to be such a big one, jeez!’

The problems just kept on coming. The tuna that just happened to get caught by my lame stabbing was easily over 100 kilograms. I almost got dragged into the ocean by the speared fish. It must have been a fellow that had eaten a lot of natural, healthy food because it was as strong as a bull in heat, though that was a bit of an exaggeration. As soon as the fish got stabbed and dove into the water, I was forced to buckle down and raise my mana output to the max. If things went wrong, I could even become fish food while trying to catch the tuna.

Clenching my teeth, I invested all the 4th Circle mana I had, and fought desperately to keep the fish from submerging.

And so it went, for a long 30 minutes.

The moment I was about to run out of the once-plentiful 4th Circle mana, the fish went totally slack-jawed and lost its will to live. The sight of that made me cry manly tears because I had been about to let go of the spear and give up.

After the boar, it was the second hunt I’d won through magic. The happiness of having become a Mage who could earn his own meal was indescribable.

‘Phew! I’m finally here.’

Dragging the fish with the spear, I reached the beach. I wasn’t able to meet the sea monsters everyone had told me about, and I proudly dragged my harvest towards the village. That is, after recovering my mana for a bit and applying Lighten magic, which I had trained to perfection these days, to the fish.

“Ma-Madir!”

“Ohhh! Goodness! How long it has been since I last saw a madir!”

“H-how did you catch a madir on your own…?”

‘Geh! W-why did they run towards me like this?’

Though I had cast Lighten magic, since I had spent half the day overdoing it with the Flight magic, my muscles were screaming ‘save me.’ I had shouldered the tuna with the one resolve to eat meat even in that pain, so I was late to realize that people had appeared around me.

“Wooow! The young lad Kyre caught a madir!”

“The chief! Hurry and call the chief!”

Everyone raised a ruckus. Bursting out with cheers upon seeing the tuna, the villagers didn’t even think about helping me and went looking for the chief instead.

“Hahh, haaah! Hey, this is heavy, y’know!”

I couldn’t even move because of all the people blocking my way.

Flop.

‘Aish, whatever.’

Since it could just be washed if a little sand got on it, I gently laid the tuna onto the ground. But since it was a fairly heavy tuna, it sank deeply into the sand.

“Ohh! A madir was caught? A madir?!”

And, looking at the huge tuna and me, gap-toothed, old Chief Aves appeared amongst the villagers with such excitement that no one could butt in.

“It’s really a madir! T-the first madir I’ve seen in ten years!”

Without even looking at me, Chief got so riled up at the sight of the tuna. He would definitely have a fit if he knew that in the 21st century, tuna like this were farmed from the ocean.

‘What a shame. If this was Korea, I could score a jackpot with a Japanese restaurant.’

Far over there, a school of tuna were still jumping up. If I were to catch that fresh tuna and sell it, the Japanese would go nuts and rush at me.

“L-lad, who are you, really?”

Recovering from the tuna, Chief Aves looked at me and asked who I was. It wasn’t just the chief. All the villagers that had rushed over had the same question in their eyes.

“Kyre. Haha! My name is Kyre!”

Scratching my head, I gave a refreshing smile.

‘I’m Kyre, a Mage from the 21st century. That’s who I am. Uhahahaha!”

While holding back and hiding the truth I couldn’t reveal within my heart…

* * *

“Kyaa, this is killer!”

I was eating the tuna stew cooked by Cecile, whose cooking skill was ridiculously perfect and deceptive in appearance. With just one tuna, I had received immense gratitude from the villagers. The meat was divided into about a hundred parts so each family could have some to eat, and with a chunk of meat just larger than a fist, the villagers wept as they relayed their feelings of thanks. Apparently, it was precious meat that was hard to catch even ten years ago, so they couldn’t just have a taste of it. And just like that, the tuna I caught gave a small comfort to the villagers who had been losing hope.

“Bro! It’s really tasty! Before, I only admired Dad but now I wanna admire you too!”

The tuna head that was left over after deboning the meat was my share, and with that plump, fleshy head, Cecile made a very tasty fish stew. And for the silly little kid, a few pieces of meat made me his hero.

“Sigh, it sure was tasty, but if we had sold the madir, it would have helped towards the tax…”

‘Seriously, how much is this tax? All the villagers are bemoaning the tax.’

“Hans, how much is the tax? Why is everyone so busy worrying about the tax?”

“Sorry. To make even an outsider like you worry about the villagers…” Hans scratched his head.

“I’m hurt, Hans. I, at least, have never thought of the villagers, including you, Cecile, and Deron, as strangers…”

Though it hadn’t been many days since coming to this new world, I had been touched by the generosity of these simple people, something you couldn’t easily experience in the 21st century. To save a stranger like me, they had given me the food they had little of and even a place to sleep. It made me sad that Hans thought of me as a stranger.

“N-no, that’s not what I mean, I just don’t want to burden even you with the troubles of village. You’re young and overflowing with dreams, after all.”

‘Haaah, you drive me crazy. Just hurry and tell me how much it is.’

I understood how Hans felt, but if you received a sincere act of kindness, repaying it many times over was best. Free was free, and a debt was a debt.

“In the kingdom currency, it’s 50 gold. The tax assigned to our village,” said Cecile quietly, in the place of her father.

“50 gold?”

‘Wait, gold sounds like golden coins, but how much is that?’

I didn’t have any clear reference points for this place’s currency, so I looked blankly at Cecile with my eyes wide open.

“A healthy horse is 5 gold. But as you’ve seen, the things produced from our village are only potatoes, wheat, and leather from the few animals we can catch once in a Lashiar’s moon. We would have made a few gold from the madir we ate today, but…”

[T/N: I’m guessing Lashiar is a deity of fortune, so it’s like ‘once in a blue moon,’ Kallian continent style. ]

Hans was sorrowfully grieving for the tuna even after eating his fill. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know a tuna wouldn’t come back once eaten, but he was stirring the tuna meat in his bowl with his spoon while looking at it regretfully.

‘Ah, I wish I had the unlimited withdrawal card.’

The absolutely powerful platinum card, which had made me love Master Bumdalf in the blink of an eye. I seriously needed it in this moment. I wanted to withdraw a few million or so at an ATM somewhere.

“Hans, how much would a demon cost?”

“D-demon? Hrm, why are you suddenly asking about demons?” Hans’ mouth dropped at the mention of a demon as he asked.

“From what I heard, since it takes a Knight capable of using Aura Blade to hunt one, it must cost quite a lot, right?”

“Of course, the leather of a demonic beast demands a high price, but… stop dreaming. I don’t know how you were so fortunate to catch a madir, but a demon is a creature of a totally different caliber. The demons evolved from the demonic creatures summoned long ago, in the time of the Divine War. I heard it even takes few Knights to be able to face one.”

‘Demands a high price? Huhu. Alright, that’s exactly it.’

I paid no heed to Hans’ other words.

“Hans, but why doesn’t the lord subjugate the demons? The village even pays taxes, so shouldn’t he at least deploy some soldiers?”

“Bro, you’re an idiot, right?”

Deron looked up from picking the bones clean of tuna and stared at me with a look of pity.

“What, what?”

“If it were you, would you send knights and soldiers to a worthless village like this when they could even be killed?”

‘Ack…’

I had known that kids were scary, but Deron was on a level of his own. The kid was clever enough to swindle the naive villagers.

“Deron is right. Ten years ago, our village even paid a tax of a thousand gold. Back then, monster hunting mercenaries occasionally took up residence here, and since many merchants came through, dozens of soldiers were dispatched. But… they all died from the attack of the demons, and with the village ruined, the lord lost interest in us. There are probably a hundred places to help besides us in the territory.”

“But, then why do you pay the taxes? If you have that money, you can live in comfort.”

“We can do that if we want to die for treason.”

“T-treason?”

‘Isn’t this totally mobster style?’

I’d heard that in the Middle Ages, lords played king in their land, but I hadn’t known that such a thing was happening even in a place like this.

“By any chance, is there anyone who has ever hunted a demon in the village?”

“A demon… there’s just one person. He was the village’s top warrior in his youth.”

“Who is that?”

“You know him too. That person is… the chief.”

“Whaaat! Th-the chief?”

Chief Aves, who spoke while babbling like a newborn baby, and had lost most of his teeth. It wouldn’t be strange even if he were to die today or tomorrow, so I couldn’t believe that he had once been the village’s top warrior.

“Let’s go to sleep now. Luena’s Moon is rising from tomorrow onwards, so we have to mend the palisade. Cecile, thanks for the meal.”

“It was nothing, there’s no need to thank me. We had a good meal for the first time in a long while thanks to you, Kyre.”

“I-it was nothing. I didn’t do much.”

Cecile was a year younger than me, but for some reason I couldn’t relax my speech around her. To me, Cecile was such a charming woman that even if she were to go to a nightclub, she wouldn’t be subjected to a serious check.

‘Huhu, it’s a relief. That I’m in Hans’ house and not the chief’s.’

There was a saying that you could only experience the true taste of alcohol if it was poured by a woman, even if she was a granny. I liked Hans’ house, which was filled with the fragrant aroma of a woman. Even if I had to sleep on the hard, bare ground, which made my whole body ache when I woke up in the morning.

* * *

“Huuu!”

Breathing in deeply, I finished mana channeling. I was on the cliff I’d discovered a few days ago, where I could clearly see the village and the sea. Hidden from prying eyes, it was just the thing for training.

‘I haven’t maximized the circle yet. Seriously, what a huge amount of mana.’

The difference between 3rd Circle mana quantity and the 4th Circle was like the difference between a condo and an apartment building. Though the environment of the Kallian Continent was flush with considerably high-density mana, I still couldn’t fully fill the huge circle wrapped around my waist area.

‘I’ll have to fill it up for another fifteen days, at the very least.’

After rising to the 3rd Circle, I’d been able to fully charge the circle with mana in just three days, but the 4th Circle was on a different level.

‘The problem isn’t the mana quantity, but the skillful use of magic. It’s too dangerous to act cool and play wizard like other Mages do.’

Though I’d grown past being the Orc poo that Master had intimidated me with, and was now at the level of Ogre poo, I felt that the 4th Circle wasn’t enough. Just catching a single tuna a few days ago had been a handful. So it was still too much to fight against monsters, demons, and Knights using Aura Blade.

‘I’ve gotta get stronger.’

Clenching my teeth tightly, I realized that I had to live as if I were in a Marine Corps boot camp training ground. Even if you were powerless like the people of Luna Village, no one in the continent would protect you. In Korea, the military men and the cops were around to ensure safety, but not here.

‘I have to skillfully graft together magic and actual martial arts, like that guy.’

The chink gangster who’d left a blade sitting pretty in my belly. I recalled the movements he had attacked me with.

‘Thankfully, I’ve learned how to use a sword. And with the mana breathing technique Master taught me, I can learn magic, the sword, and even summoning. Now, all that’s left is my efforts.’

I had sought out the chief and asked him several things about demons. Things about the kinds of demons, their characteristics, and even how to handle demon leather. Since the villagers tried not to leave their houses for a month as Luena’s Moon rose, even during the day, the chief spluttered on and on about his 99% false tales of heroism and demons for a long half day. All throughout, he was wearing an expression of, ‘I’ve got you now.’

It was the appearance of a new hero, one who could rival Ms. Wang Sun-nyeo, the Dreaded Snow White. He’d also lost his teeth and was speaking with an accent that was hard to understand. While concentrating and listening to him, I reached a level of exhaustion that was on par with the time when Master had trapped and tortured me on the magic circle.

‘Most demons have a certain degree of tolerance to magic, and even Knights using Aura Blade have to be Blade Knights at least to be able to catch them. They’re strong. And I’m still weak.’

I coldly accepted the reality. I was the disciple of an 8th Circle Archmage, but I wasn’t an Archmage myself.

Chiing!

‘A sword…’

At the end of half a day of mental assault, Chief gave me the sword he’d used in his youth, saying that I had allowed him to taste madir again before he died. It was called a long sword. I kept recalling the phase, ‘weight of a sword’, something my instructor had told me after earning my Kumdo 2nd dan.

‘The sword becomes one with the mind.’

Unlike the other styles of Kumdo, which were universally known, the Swift Style Kumdo I had learned was the pure, characteristic style of my people, descended from the Goguryeo period. And the Swift Style Kumdo taught disciples that the sword was the mind.

Baam! After raising the sword, I swung it sideways with all the strength I could muster.

‘These three conditions are the first and last techniques of the sword. Even for flashy moves, if those three conditions aren’t met, they’re merely trickery of the eye. I’ll make all of these conditions mine!’

I had quit Taekwondo and the sword in 7th grade to immerse myself in studying, to get into Daehan High School. And now, in this unfamiliar place called the Kallian Continent, I had to pick up the sword again to survive. Until the day I returned, surviving was my absolute, greatest priority.

‘You tuna, you’re all dead!’

Unaware of my resolution, the tuna were leaping above the sea, mocking me. The day I learned how to double cast 4th Circle magic would surely be a funeral day for the tunas.

‘Demons, just you wait. Huhu.’

I turned my head to gaze at the splendid sight of the Zarre Mountains, which ran opposite to the sea. Until the day I returned, I had to eat and live. But I couldn’t live in poverty while eating potatoes. I needed amazing merchandise in order to live a hearty, long, and glorious life.

“Uhahahahaha!”

My heart was filled with the mana of the Kallian Continent. I was Kang Hyuk, a man who’d received extreme special training since birth, training to be able to survive no matter where he was!

There was nothing to fear just because it was a different world.

The most childish daredevil in the entire world! The only human under the sky who possessed such childish recklessness, and an Archmage’s disciple from a 21st century world, at that.